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| 🗹 #174 of 424 NPS units for me (#171 for R) |
Unfortunately, I goofed up the date when tickets for guided tours of the Roosevelt home would become available online. When I checked the website in mid-May, tickets for the 10:00AM tour were already sold out, and there was only one spot left at 11:00AM, which I immediately nabbed. To complicate matters further, the visitor center/museum didn't open until 11:00AM, so we wouldn't be able to go through the exhibits there beforehand either. Doh! 🤦🏻♀️
Determined to see what we could with the time we had, we left the hotel for Oyster Bay about 8:15AM this morning, with R's friend S riding along on the Saiki-delic crazy train. Our first stop was Youngs Memorial Cemetery to see the gravesite of the 26th President of the United States.
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| Theodore Roosevelt October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919 Edith Kermit August 6, 1861 - September 30, 1948 |
Many Roosevelt family members are also interred here, but some are only memorialized because they were buried elsewhere. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the oldest son of Theodore and Edith, led the D-Day assault on Utah Beach in 1944, but he died a month later from a heart attack and was eventually buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. The youngest son Quentin, a World War I pilot, was killed in action in 1918 at the age of 20 and was originally buried near where he had been shot down in France, but his remains were later moved to Normandy to rest beside his brother's.
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| Grave marker for Ted Jr. and his wife Eleanor, next to the marker for his son Quentin II (killed in a plane crash in Hong Kong) and wife Frances |
After leaving the cemetery, we took Cove Rd. to get a better view of Oyster Bay, and then backtracked to Cove Neck Rd. for the short drive up to Sagamore Hill.
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| Oyster Bay Harbor and Centre Island |
As a youth, Theodore Roosevelt spent the summers in Oyster Bay with his family, enjoying the outdoors and the activities of "the strenuous life" such as hiking, rowing, swimming, and riding. After graduating from Harvard in 1880, he and his fiancée Alice Lee purchased land in Cove Neck to build a home. They married later that year. But before construction began, Alice died of kidney disease on February 14, 1884, just hours after Roosevelt's mother died of typhoid fever in the same house on 57th St. in Manhattan and two days after giving birth to their first child, also named Alice.
After his wife's death, Theodore left the baby in the care of his older sister Anna, who moved into the home with Alice when it was completed in 1885. He, however, divided his time between New York and his cattle ranch in the Dakota Territory until 1886, when he married his childhood friend Edith Kermit Carow. Together they raised Alice and five children of their own at Sagamore Hill: Theodore (1887), Kermit (1889), Ethel (1891), Archibald (1894), and Quentin (1897).
During TR's presidency, Sagamore Hill became the "Summer White House" from which the day-to-day affairs of the nation were run. It was also here that he met with envoys from Japan and Russia in his library, which led to the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war between the two nations and a Nobel Peace Prize for Roosevelt.
The three of us arrived at Sagamore Hill around 9:30AM and walked the grounds around the home for a bit. I was hoping that there would be some no-shows for the 10:00AM tour so that we could join the earlier one, but no such luck. However, I did manage to sweet-talk the volunteer into letting just me crash the tour since I did have a ticket for 11:00AM. What's one extra body?!
Since Sagamore Hill never left the hands of the Roosevelts, most of the furnishings inside are original to the family. Of all of the historic homes that we have visited, this is definitely one of my favorites, not only because of who lived here, but also because everything the docent pointed out on the tour was genuinely authentic! I couldn't use the flash on my camera inside the house, but hopefully the photos below are clear enough to give you a glimpse into the home of the Roosevelts.
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| African Cape buffalo head in the front hallway |
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| Library |
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| The polar bear rug was a gift from Adm. Peary from his 1909 expedition to the North Pole |
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| Drawing room |
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| Dining room |
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| Kitchen |
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| North Room |
The North Room contains numerous objects and souvenirs from Roosevelt's life. The ivory elephant tusks at the entrance to the room were a gift from the Emperor of Abyssinia (Ethiopian Empire), and the Samurai Warrior on the table was a gift from Admiral Togo, hero of the Russo-Japanese War. The cavalry saber and hat perched upon the elk antlers on the left are originals from TR's "Rough Rider" days in the Spanish-American War. Looking around, I couldn't help but think what a pain it must be to dust in here!
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| Stairway and 2nd floor landing |
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| Theodore and Edith's bedroom |
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| Guest bedroom - Theodore's niece Eleanor (yes, the future First Lady) stayed here as a child |
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| The boys' bedroom |
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| Oldest daughter Alice's bedroom - she didn't have to share |
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| Ted Jr.'s bedroom on the 3rd floor |
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| The 3rd floor study was dubbed the "gun room" because this is where TR kept his hunting arms |
While I was inside taking the tour, R and S were outside, hiking the nature trail out to Cold Spring Harbor. Afterwards I caught up with them at the Old Orchard Museum/Visitor Center.
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| Making friends with Mr. Krabs |
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| Cold Spring Harbor |
"Old Orchard" was built by Ted Jr. and his wife Eleanor in 1938 on four acres of land in the Sagamore Hill apple orchard purchased from his mother. After her husband's death in 1944, Eleanor resided in the home until her death in 1960. In 1962, the Theodore Roosevelt Association purchased Old Orchard and donated it to the National Park Service. It was opened to the public as a museum in 1966.
Warning: now entering a history nerd zone!
We learned a lot going through the exhibits in the Theodore Roosevelt Museum at Old Orchard. The first section focused on his early years up through his time as governor of New York (1899-1900). From the beginning of his political career as a state assemblyman (1882-1884) to the Civil Service Commission (1889-1895) and even as a New York City Police Commissioner (1895-1897), he made his mark fighting corruption and instituting reforms.
As governor, Roosevelt's political independence and his actions to reform the state government in New York alienated him from the leaders of the Republican Party. Seeking a way to get him out of Albany, his public popularity as a war hero made him an ideal candidate for the benign position of vice president, where his influence and reform efforts would be limited. But when President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, 42-year-old Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest President of the United States.
The second portion of the museum was devoted to Roosevelt's presidency (1901-1909). His domestic policy was known as the "Square Deal," the primary goals of which were conservation of natural resources, control of corporations ("trust-busting"), and consumer protection. At his instruction, the Justice Department filed 45 anti-trust suits, breaking up the largest railroad monopoly (Northern Securities Company) and regulating the largest oil company (Standard Oil). Most notably, he established 18 national monuments using the Antiquities Act of 1906 (we have visited 14 of them) and created 150 national forests by executive order, protecting nearly 200 million acres of public lands.
"All I ask is a square deal for every man. Give him a fair chance, do not let him wrong anyone and do not let him be wronged... The only way to help a man in the end is to help a man to help himself."
- 1903 speech at the Grand Canyon
The last set of exhibits covered his post-presidential years, including his African safari in 1909 and his campaign as a third-party candidate in 1912. Unhappy with his successor, William Howard Taft, he launched the Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party to run for a third term as president. But in the end, the Republican vote was split between Taft and himself, which put Democrat Woodrow Wilson into office.
Since it was almost noon when we finished going through the museum, we drove straight back to Roslyn and grabbed lunch from Joanne's Gourmet Pizza next to our hotel - a slice of baked ziti pizza for me, and a penne ala vodka slice for R. Yum!
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| So many choices! |
How fun to celebrate such a happy occasion with some of our dearest friends!
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| Congrats to the bride and groom! |
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